THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



71 



bed with Flower of the day geranium, with edging 

 of Lobelia ramosoides, and the four small ones 

 with Sanvitalia procrurobens, Verbena Defiance, 

 White perfection, and Emma, all four in the 

 order named, going round. Or, Urge bed, Tom 

 Thumb geraniums, edged with Cerastium tomen- 

 tosum, and the four others, as follows :— Petunia, 

 Prince Albert, Canceolaria aurea floribuuda, 

 Verbena Brilliant de Vaise, and Canceolaria 

 Orange Boven. Fumigate your house with 

 tobacco, then syringe the plants, and let them 

 have a little more air. Perhaps, you have kept 

 them too close and warm of late. Gidncy's self- 

 acting fumigator will suit you. Write for it to 

 Gidney, East Dereham, Norfolk. 



Plants dnder Trees.— H. B. C— See a list in a 

 previous page, to that you may add any of our 

 hardy ferns, any of the hardy Primulas, Cepha- 

 lotaxus Fortuni, and Sfrimmia japonica, are 

 lovely shrubs for undergrowth. 



Potatoe Sets. — A young Hand.— Potatoes that 

 have made white sprouts of two or three inches 

 long are quite unfit for the purpose of planting ; 

 the sprouts should be stout, hard, well coloured, 

 full of vigour, and not one should be broken in 

 planting. We do know what is the method 

 adopted by Mr. Sheppard, of East Grinsted, but 

 though it is very simple, and might be told in 

 half a dozen words, it would be an infringement 

 of right for us to publish it. His success as a 

 cultivator arises mainly from his mode of pre- 

 paring the sets, and if you, as you say, want 

 seed for planting, why not order it of him, and 

 you will be entitled to a copy of his instructions. 



Roses. — R. U. — Yes, take cuttings about six 

 joints long, and put them in in neat rows, in very 

 fine soil, in a west or even north border. By 

 an accident, wo did not get your letter till we 

 were going to press last month. 



Seakale, <fcc. — W. J. L. — The culture of this 

 and other choice esculents will be fully treated, 

 and, for the present, we refer you to our monthly 

 papers on "Garden Work." 



Soils, Liquid Manures, §c— Scrutator. — The 

 earths called loams, are those most in request 

 for all kinds of vegetable and flower culture, 

 but what proportion of sand should be mixed 

 with them, depends on their consistence, and the 

 purpose for which to be used. Sound friable 

 hazelly loam three parts, leaf-mould two parts, 

 rotten dung one part, and gritty silver sand one 

 part, will grow almost anything, and may be 

 considered the safest and universal compost.— 

 Guano is best applied in a liquid state, and if the 

 best Peruvian be used, the best way to prepare 

 it is to dissolve five pounds in one gallon of 

 warm soft water, and when it has become clear, 

 add half a pint of the solution to a gallon of 

 pure soft water. If used any stronger, it may 

 do more harm than good. The best time to 

 apply it is when the plants are in full vigour 



of growth, and never to very young plants, or to 

 seeds of any kind ; fresh cowdung may be used 

 to make liquid manure. Leaves gathered in 

 autumn may be heaped up anywhere in an ex- 

 posed place to rot for leaf-mould. In spring, 

 turn them over to the frost. Hard water may 

 be softened by the addition of a few drops of 

 ammonia, or dissolve a piece of soda or potash 

 as large as a pea in half a pint of boiling water, 

 and add that to every gallon of the cold hard 

 water. Any kind of earth will do to form the 

 walls of a pit, but turf is the best ; a four inch 

 top sill will do; but a strip of zinc all round, 

 wide enough to carry the rain off, would do bet- 

 ter ; the calico should be on the under side, and 

 the centre bar under the calico, to which it may 

 be kept close by means of a few tacks. The 

 frame should be painted or tarred. We have 

 answered the whole of your twelve queries by 

 connecting some of them together, and shall 

 always be glad to assist you, but have a little 

 mercy on us, and put fewer queries at a time. 

 Vegetable Marrows. — E. T. — We have not yet 

 been able to find room for an article on the cul- 

 ture of this vegetable, but hope to do it next 

 month. If your fruit is ripe, take out the seeds 

 at once, remove them from the pulp, and dry 

 them slowly ; they may either be sown at once 

 in heat, or saved till May. 



Vinery. — /. A. C. — Cucumbers, melons, and 

 mushrooms, and the forcing of seakale and 

 asparagus are quite within your reach, and the 

 propagation of all kinds of bedding-stock. A* 

 to growing on any choice flowering plants, that 

 depends on bow you manage your vines. You 

 have heat enough for Gloxinias, <fec, but have 

 you light enough when the vines are in leaf? 

 We wdl endeavour to meet your wants at an 

 early opportunity. 



Watering Plants. — Elder Leaf Calceolaria. 

 — Sphinx.— " I have been in the habit of water- 

 ing my plants with the water that drops from the 

 tank in my stove, and sometimes syringe the 

 leaves with it ; but from that, or some other 

 cause, many of the plants get spotted, and others 

 die away. Can the water be so impregnated with 

 iron as makes it unfit for the purpose named ? I 

 have several seedling Calceolarias with the leaves 

 exactly like those of the elder. Never seeing any 

 like them before, I suppose it is not of common 

 occurrence. The flower is small yellow." — 

 Water for greenhouse or any other plants should 

 not come in contact with iron. The subject of 

 watering demands more attention than it has 

 yet received, for on that point no end of mistakes 

 are made by amateurs. For wetting the foliage 

 of plants, the water should be pure, soft, and 

 tepid, never cold. If hard, a drop or two of harts- 

 horn will soften it. Your Calceolaria is probably 

 C.pinnata—a, pretty yellow-flowered herbaceous 

 species from Peru. 



Insect Autobiographies.* — We have received two pretty little books of a novel 

 character, which we heartily commend to the perusal of every lover of natural his- 

 tory, and especially to young people who take a pleasure in observing nature and 

 gathering knowledge from the fields and hedge-rows. They are respectively entitled 

 " The Autobiography of a White Cabbage Butterfly," and the " Autobiography 

 of a Gossamer Spider," both of them by Michael Westcott, a well-known contributor 

 to the " Naturalist," and other scientific works. They are written in such a play- 

 ful, genial, hvely, and instructive spirit that the experienced naturalist will find a 

 perusal well repay him, and to the many who are not yet acquainted with all the 

 wonders mixed up with the natural history of spiders and butterflies, they will prove 

 to be valuable epitomes of curious information, not compiled from books, but 

 written con amore by a naturalist skilled in original observation. 



* Groombridge and Sons, London ; and T. Green, Wells, Somerset. 



